Siemens Living Lab Adds Virtual Environment, Kathy Hitchins, Microgrid Knowledge, March 20, 2023

In 2020, Siemens launched a living lab at its US technology headquarters in Princeton, N.J. The goal was to reduce the facility’s carbon emissions and to showcase how microgrids can be used by comparable facilities.

Last week, the company, which is one of the most active in the microgrid space, expanded its demonstration capabilities with the launch of an interactive virtual environment. Now, the public, customers and partners have the ability to tour the microgrid system from anywhere in the world.

A virtual look at a real-life microgrid

The virtual environment offers two guided tours.

The first provides an automated, high level look at the entire microgrid system in place at Siemens’ technology research and development center. The second provides a more in-depth look at each of the major components of the microgrid. Users can get the specifications of the microgrid’s major components, including the controller, the photovoltaic canopy system, electric vehicle charging stations, battery storage systems and switches.

Additionally, users may explore the space at their own pace by selecting the specific microgrid component they want to learn about, rather than taking the guided tour. Most sections of the self-guided virtual environment allow the visitor to click on a specific component to get a closer look and learn more.

The virtual environment also features a demonstration of the microgrid dashboard, which shows how the microgrid manages and controls renewable and traditional energy for the research and development campus in real time.

Carbon neutral by 2030

The microgrid is enabling the Princeton facility to become self-sufficient and reach its goal of carbon neutrality by 2030, according to Siemens, which describes it as a true living lab. Siemens researchers and their partners are studying the system as a whole, as well as each individual component, to improve microgrid designs that can serve a variety of users including universities, office parks and industrial parks.

When the living lab was launched three years ago, Dave Hopping, president and CEO of Siemens Smart Infrastructure North America, said one of the company’s goals was to “demystify the difficulties around installing and operating a microgrid to provide a clear path towards clean energy and carbon neutrality.”

The new virtual environment is another step in achieving that goal, a way to make the technology more accessible to the public, customers and microgrid partners.

https://www.microgridknowledge.com/microgrids/article/33002021/siemens-living-lab-adds-interactive-virtual-environment

"Rooftop solar and household batteries to take centre stage in rapid energy transition", Sophie Vorrath, One Step off the Grid

https://onestepoffthegrid.com.au/rooftop-solar-and-household-batteries-to-take-centre-stage-in-rapid-energy-transition/

The new report from the market operator, its 30-year blueprint, says distributed resources will play a central role in providing power and the “firming” capacity needed to support a grid with high levels of renewables, up to nearly 100 per cent.

The predictions come in the final version of the Australian Energy Market Operator’s 2022 Integrated System Plan, its roadmap to a rapid transition to a grid dominated by renewables, featuring two-way energy flows and technologies that will draw on cheap, green power rather than coal, gas and oil.

The ISP focuses much of its 600-odd pages – the main report and its appendices – on the monumental planning and development efforts required to accommodate nine times as much large-scale renewable generation capacity and three times as much “firming” capacity on the NEM by 2050.

But AEMO also stresses the huge influence of the generation and feed-in capability of “millions of individual consumer-owned solar PV systems,” not to mention the batteries – either installed as part of the solar system or parked in  driveways as part of an electric vehicle – that are expected to be added to them.

"Why virtual power plants are the future of electricity retailing", Gabrielle Kuiper, RenewEconomy, 21 March 2022

A virtual power plant (VPP) is a network of distributed energy resources – not just rooftop solar, but also batteries, electric vehicles and smart appliances – working as a single power source and aggregated via software to participate in energy markets.

Why virtual power plants are the future of electricity retailing

VPPs create the opportunity for cheaper, faster decarbonisation than only building large-scale generation and storage.

They do that by leveraging consumers’ investments to benefit the system as a whole, speeding up the payback period for households and businesses, and reducing the overall system cost of new renewable generation and storage.

In general, the greatest value in rooftop solar and battery storage is in providing behind-the-meter (BTM) on-site electricity supply, co-locating generation and load, while avoiding network and retail costs

"Unmanaged energy": WA gears up for solar switch-off rules, to probe Christmas blackouts, Sophie Vorrath, RenewEconomy, 31 January 2022

Posted on LIVE ELECTRICITY GENERATION DATA, AUSTRALIA is a January midday West Australian South West Interconnected System supply and demand graph. It is a neat picture of the impact of heatwave conditions on demand, and the consistent January reliability of rooftop PV availability when the air conditioner load demands cut in.

“On Monday, the McGowan government again stressed the enormity of the state’s break-neck shift to distributed solar, with 191MW of new small-scale solar generation capacity added over the course of 2021, taking the total amount of rooftop solar installed on the SWIS to more than 1.3GW.

And while this amount of distributed solar can have the effect of slashing demand during daylight hours, it can also pose a unique set of problems for the grid, including managing fluctuations in a potentially huge amount of daytime solar supply.

“This unmanaged energy presents challenges on mild sunny days when rooftop solar generation is high and demand from the system is low,” the statement said.

To this end, Western Australia is preparing to allow the network operator to order residential rooftop solar systems to be switched off remotely as an emergency measure to keep the grid stable, with new rules around this coming into play within weeks.

The Labor McGowan government announced the solar switch-off measures in November of 2021, which it said would be used as a tool “of last resort,” for use over short periods on days when abundant rooftop solar generation sends demand for electricity to critically low levels.”

— RenewEconomy

https://reneweconomy.com.au/unmanaged-energy-wa-gears-up-for-solar-switch-off-rules-to-probe-christmas-blackouts/ RenewEconomy

"Rooftop solar helps send South Australia grid to zero demand in world first", Giles Parkinson, Renew Economy, 22 November 2021.

“Sunday’s milestones were just the latest in a series of benchmark achievements for South Australia, which already leads the world in the percentage of wind and solar in its grid.

Wind and solar accounted for more than 62 per cent of local demand in the last 12 months, despite occasionally heavy curtailment because of the limits of a grid with a connection only to Victoria.

The state government has a target of net 100 per cent renewables by 2030, but should reach that milestone well before then, particularly after a new link to NSW is completed in 2025.”

— Renew Economy

1.17MW rooftop solar system installed on the short-term car park at Adelaide Airport.

https://reneweconomy.com.au/rooftop-solar-helps-send-south-australia-grid-to-zero-demand-in-world-first/

"AUSTRALIA REACHES 3 MILLION HOUSHOLDS WITH ROOFTOP SOLAR", Miki Perkins, Sydney Morning Herald, Nov 9, 2021.

““So far, it’s everyday people that have done the heavy lifting on carbon emissions reduction, while the Australian government has been dragging its feet,””

— Ellen Roberts, Solar Citizens

https://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/australia-reaches-3-million-households-with-rooftop-solar-20211108-p59721.html

Shenton Park house, Western Australia by Ehdo

https://www.ehdo.com.au

"Four ways rooftop solar and household batteries can help the grid", Sophie Vorrath, Renew Economy

1. Avoided/deferred augmentation

“Increased DER capacity may lead to avoided/deferred transmission augmentation as it may reduce the amount of load supplied from within distribution networks and reduce peak demand at transmission connection points. It may also lead to avoided/deferred distribution augmentation, as it increases the amount of load supplied from within distribution networks and may reduce peak demand at upstream network assets.”

2. Avoided replacement/asset derating

“Increased DER capacity can lower the average load on network assets, enabling asset deratings and when replacement is required, smaller, cheaper assets can be installed,” the draft says.

“DNSPs may quantify these benefits where the proposed investment to increase hosting capacity leads to changes in other parts of the network where: peak demand is not growing over time at the relevant network asset; peak demand coincides with times when DER exports are enabled; network asset longevity can be improved by reducing loads.”

3. Reduced line losses

“Increases in DER generation may result in avoided transmission and distribution losses. DER generation can supply loads within the distribution network, reducing the supply from centralised generators connected to distribution networks by transmission lines, which avoids energy being lost to heat when transported over transmission lines. It can also reduce the distance the energy travels across the distribution network compared to centralised generators, which reduces the amount of energy lost to heat when transported over distribution lines.”

4. Improved reliability

“DER can supply individual customers and/or local networks after network faults, where it can be islanded, reducing unserved energy and outage duration,” the draft says, adding that this is only quantifiable if theDER in question enables an increase in flexible energy generation and/or flexible capacity, and where batteries are included, such as in VPPs and microgrids. 

“Specifically, this value stream may be quantified where: The proposed investment includes or incentivises additional investment in battery storage (which would otherwise not be installed); the additional battery investment is able to be islanded during a fault; outages of up to a few hours are common.”

*Environmental benefits

According to the AER, this is about the benefits of avoided greenhouse gas emissions due to additional DER. Of course, “these can only be quantified if there is an identifiable tax, levy or other payment associated with environmental or health costs which producers are required to pay or where jurisdictional legislation directs DNSPs to consider the impact of these externalities and has provided a value that is to be used.” 

The guidance note goes on to say that “renewable energy targets and/or a potential carbon price for generators should be incorporated into the DNSP’s calculation of wholesale market benefits. If there is a jurisdictional requirement to consider the price of carbon, the DNSP should calculate the carbon benefits associated with its proposed investment.”

**Intangible benefits

According to the AER, these might include such consumer benefits as “a sense of empowerment, autonomy and resilience,” which could serve as motivation for consumers “to pay a premium to invest in DER or accept reduced revenue from their DER investment.”

While the Regulator acknowledges that some customers may value these intangible (or non–monetary) benefits, it says DNSPs should not include them in their investment calculations. “In line with the RIT–D principles, credible options should maximise the present value of the net economic benefit to all those who produce, consume and transport electricity in the NEM,” it says.

https://reneweconomy.com.au/four-ways-rooftop-solar-and-household-batteries-can-help-the-grid/

Rooftop solar hits record 65.2% generation in WA as installation rush continues, Giles Parkinson, Renew Economy

The Australian Energy Market Operator on Wednesday confirmed that the new record was set at 1.20 local time on Saturday, March 13, when about 1,250MW was being generated from the near 1,500MW installed on the main grid, known as the South West Integrated System (SWIS).

https://reneweconomy.com.au/rooftop-solar-hits-record-65-2-generation-in-wa-as-installation-rush-continues/

West Australia puts community batteries at top of new energy roadmap, Giles Parkinson, Renew Economy, 5 April 2020.

The West Australia Labor government has unveiled a new energy roadmap that puts community battery storage at the top of its proposals to embrace a wholesale switch to distributed energy sources such as rooftop solar panels, household and community batteries, electric vehicles and microgrids

 Distributed Energy Roadmap – nearly a year in the making – was unveiled on the weekend by state energy minister Bill Johnston, and it forms a key part of its Energy Transformation Taskforce, charged with dealing with the switch from coal and then other fossil fuels, to a grid dominated by renewables and storage.

Western Australia currently has one in three households with rooftop solar generating 45% of demand at times and predictions are that installations will reach one in two in coming years. The Distributed Energy Roadmap presents a staged plan to manage and efficiently integrate the distributed power.

A standout of the 36 actions is a community batteries proposal, with batteries proposed for ten towns and communities by the end of 2020.

Under those schemes, solar households could choose to access either 6kWh or 8kWh of virtual storage, at a cost of $1.60 or $1.90 per day respectively, to store the excess power from their solar PV systems.

This allows those homes to draw electricity back from the PowerBank during the afternoon and evening peak – when their solar systems stop generating – without having stump up thousands of dollars for their own behind-the-meter battery storage system.

This was welcomed by the Clean Energy Council, which described the initiatives as “nation leading” and said community storage such as Powerbanks can be used to manage the grid and reduce grid costs.

renew economy

South Australia encourages rooftop solar and battery storage in new homes, Giles Parkinson, One Step off the Grid

The South Australian government has now made available the $100 million home battery scheme to new homes, to be made available through a range of different retailers and providers who can aggregate the solar and batteries as part of their various “virtual power plants” that offer revenue from providing energy and grid services to the main grid when needed.

Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) in South Australia are being operated by Tesla, Sonnen, AGL, ShineHub, Simply Energy, EnergyAustralia and Stoddard making a significant contribution towards supporting the wider grid.

https://onestepoffthegrid.com.au/south-australia-encourages-rooftop-solar-and-battery-storage-in-new-homes/#disqus_thread

What is a solar PPA, Paul Gizinski, September 20, 2018, One Step Off the Grid

The Victorian Government defines a solar PPA or solar power purchase agreement as an activity where “a business provides, installs and maintains, at no initial cost, a solar panel system to a customer and in exchange, the customer buys the electricity provided by the solar panels for an agreed price and for an agreed period. Any electricity that is not used is sold to a licensed retailer.”

Given that the customer buys the energy generated from that solar system at a rate (c/kWh) generally lower than the rate they would get from the grid, they are able to enjoy the savings of the solar system from the first day it is generating energy, without having to invest their own capital.

https://onestepoffthegrid.com.au/what-is-a-solar-ppa/

Northam Boulevard Shopping Centre PV shaded car park. A distributed generation PPA in Northam, WA

Solar and wind move from mainstream to preferred, Deloitte Insights, Global renewable energy trends,

https://www2.deloitte.com/insights/us/en/industry/power-and-utilities/global-renewable-energy-trends.html

Wind and solar place downward pressure on electricity prices. In theory, because solar and wind have zero marginal generation costs, they displace more expensive generators and reduce electricity prices. In global practice, the deployment of solar has flattened midday price peaks, while wind has lowered nighttime prices. Three-quarters of the top 20 US solar and wind states have electricity prices below the US national average; a quarter are among the nation’s 10 states with the cheapest electricity, including the wind leader Texas. Wholesale prices in the top European solar and wind market, Germany, have more than halved over the past decade. In Denmark, which has the world’s highest share of intermittent renewables (53 percent), electricity prices exclusive of taxes and levies are among the lowest in Europe. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory estimates that once the United States reaches Denmark’s penetration levels of 40–50 percent renewables, some states will see the dawn of “energy too cheap to meter.”

Uniti "Holden"? An Australian-made Swedish EV.

An Australian-made electric car for $20,000 by 2020, by Tony Bosworth in The Driven

https://thedriven.io/2018/09/05/uniti-electric-car/?utm_source=RE+Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=83c1ee6766-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_09_06_04_47&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_46a1943223-83c1ee6766-40332669

 

Australian Dr Michael Molitor, a director of Uniti Sweden AB, said: 

Australia had all the raw ingredients to build electric vehicles – as well as the automotive expertise in its workforce too thanks to the now-shuttered Ford and Holden operations.

“Our analysis suggests that, with advanced manufacturing techniques, a completely different business model that applies to the assembly and use of these vehicles and with the abundant natural resources and the key elements that we have.

South Australia offers up to $6,000 grants for home battery installations, Giles Parkinson, RenewEconomy

Details of the biggest government incentive for battery storage to date in Australia to subsidise the installation of home battery storage in up to 40,000 homes have been announced by the South Australian Liberal government. The state has more than 230,000 rooftop systems, potentially producing, at times,  more solar power than the overall demand in the state. The storage solution allows the management of the excess power and the creation of a virtual power plant by linking and management by a third party providing grid services. 

https://reneweconomy.com.au/south-australia-offers-up-to-6000-grants-for-home-battery-installations-49440/   

Hôpital Universitaire de Mirebalais, Haiti, Partners In Health

“It’s not great if you’re a surgeon and you have to think about getting the generator going.” Paul Farmer, Partners In Health co-founder. 

Electricity is the most critical of resources needed to run a hospital and Haiti's Central Plateau power is intermittent, going out on average three hours a day, so providing enough continuous power was a prime consideration in the design of the 320 bed Hôpital Universitaire de Mirebalais teaching hospital built after the 2010 earthquake. The grid connected rooftop PV installed will ensure dependable power for an outpatient clinic, a women’s health outpatient clinic, a community health clinic focusing on malnutrition issues, women’s health inpatient clinic (79 beds) including labor/delivery wards and neonatal intensive care unit, surgery suite with 6 operating rooms, pharmacy depot, men’s, women’s and children’s wards accommodating 110 beds total, TB isolation ward, dental clinic, and administration center with large community meeting room. The hospital also sends excess power back to the grid. 

www.pih.org/

www.pih.org/pages/mirebalais

"Load-shedding" in KATHMANDU

Nepal Electricity Authority supplies an app that provides alerts to load-shedding, a term used for the daily scheduled and unscheduled power cuts. Shops, banks, government departments, NGOs, hospitals, hotels and any businesses that can afford a diesel generator can anticipate the break in supply and be ready to throw the switches on thousands of diesel generators that billow out another layer of exhaust fumes to an already grim atmospheric mix over the city. 

Nepal largely depends on two sources of power, hydro and imported power from India (around 25%). It has the potential to develop more hydro, but this will probably happen slowly due to the complicated and costly demands made by a challenging topography, hydrology and geology plus the additional variability of climate change. Surprisingly, wind and solar options seem to have little support.  Wind data for Nepal is poor, but the mountainous country is believed to have enormous potential for wind generation. On the other hand, solar potential is a known. In Kathmandu, solar radiation per m2/day is similar to that in Western Australia, and it receives 300 days of sun per year.

There are a few signs of progress in distributed solar, however. The Norwegian embassy has set a great example with an impressive shade structure array for the embassy car pool, several buildings have PV shade structures on flat roofs and a few more have utilised the existing appropriate roof pitch. India to the south and China to the north are now among the world leaders in PV and storage. Maybe Nepal will soon follow.

RenewEconomy, 4 Nov 2016, "Tesla's price shock: Solar + battery as cheap as grid power", Bruce Mountain

"Compared to Powerwall 1.0, peak power has increased by 40 per cent, continuous power by 50 per cent, storage capacity by 100 per cent (to 14 kWh) and an inverter is included. And all this for US$5,500 ($A8,800) – about the same price as Powerwall 1.0".

http://reneweconomy.com.au/teslas-price-shock-solar-battery-as-cheap-as-grid-power-22265/

One Step Off the Grid reports "Sydney Market solar car park to be Australia's largest, as new install takes capacity to 911kW"

The huge commercial PV project kicked off in early 2014, when Autonomous Energy was engaged by Sydney Markets Limited to replace its old 1970’s carports with purpose built carport structures, integrating 170kW of premium Kyocera solar panels as the roof, and providing undercover parking for 71 cars and trucks.

As noted, phase three, which will also use LG NeON panels, will bring the car park’s total capacity to 911kW, which makes it the largest such installation in the country, so far– at least until the 1.17MW solar array on Adelaide Airport’s short term car park is commissioned early next year. (Brisbane Markets has a 1.06MW solar array, but it is installed on the market buildings themselves, as opposed to Sydney’s purpose-built solar car park.)

"This Country Generated So much Renewable Energy It Paid People to Use It" by Lorraine Chow, EcoWatch

On May 8-a particularly sunny and windy day-Germany's renewable energy mix of solar, wind, hydropower and biomass generated so much power that it met 88% of the country's total electricity demand, or 55GW out of 63GW being consumed.   

Farm shed near Bengel, Rhineland-Palatinate

http://ecowatch.com/2016/05/11/germany-renewable-energy/

"Solar breakthrough? Regulator says tariffs should recognise PV benefits" by Giles Parkinson, RenewEconomy

It has taken nearly a decade and dozens of reviews, but finally an Australian regulator has recommended that rooftop solar installations – along with other distributed generation such as small wind turbines – be rewarded for the value they bring to the grid, and their environmental benefits.

Victoria’s Labor government last asked the Essential Services Commission to assess the value of distributed generation. After an allegedly faulty start, the ESC has produced a report that delivers a landmark shift in regulatory thinking, even if the solar industry no doubt thinks it could and should go further.

The ESC paper released on Friday also suggests that governments and regulators will continue to struggle with the reality that software and smart new technology is evolving rapidly and changing the game in ways that the regulator is yet to understand.

http://reneweconomy.com.au/2016/solar-breakthrough-regulator-says-tariffs-should-recognise-pv-benefits-26197